What is the worth of politics and patriotism? (2101 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 1.75 on 20 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Tom <theubertom.at.gmail.com> (View user info) at 2005-01-22 16:26:28 EST
I've been thinking more critically of things that I often find myself fighting for; gay marriage, freedom of speech, abortion, peace, free health care, and even a better-funded educational system. It's all becoming so evident that it doesn't matter anymore. I am going to spend the next bit of your time, granted you spend it to read, speaking the truth of all these mentioned issues.
For starters, lets look at gay marriage. This is a very touchy issue in our predominantly loud-mouth religious society. More people in the US according to mainstream media polls are religious and are also against homosexuals having the chance to marry. This part of the argument angers me. It doesn't affect you or I if homosexuals are allowed to be married, and there's no substantial evidence that it will have adverse effects on the heterosexual America (if you will). The other aspect of the argument that angers me is the whole empowered woman-esque argument for it. "Well I'm oppressed if I can't get married to my gay/lesbian lover!" they scream and yell with their signs and bumperstickers. Guess what, ladies and gentlemen. Nobody is stopping you from being in love. Nobody is stopping you from having anal sex and cross dressing. It's a pity that our society isn't accepting enough to understand that homosexuals are people too, but it isn't by any means the end of the world for gay people. Do you understand? If you're gay, you can still do gay things, you just can't get married. Oh well.
Another high-on-the-ethics-list issue is abortion, or the termination of an unborn child in the womb. I used to feel, and still do to some extent or another, that it's not the business of other people to decide if a woman can or cannot have an abortion. It's not my right to circulate propaganda through god-related forwards and have signs with dead baby pictures on them and prance around Kerry rallies. It isn't in my rights to vandalize abortion doctors' homes, only to get the wrong house because I'm a stupid prick, but you know what? It's a shame if that right is stripped, but again it doesn't affect me the littlest bit. Would you like to know why? Because I don't have a vagina! I don't stick every dick I meet into every orifice I can think of. Listen, 90% of the time, when a woman gets pregnant, she can have the child without life-threatening complications that arise from the first trimester. So, have the baby and put the child into an adoption clinic. Babies are like kitties and puppies, they usually get adopted relatively quickly.
These two paragraphs I have just written both deal with freedom. Freedom is a relative subject. It will vary from person to person. An Iraqi might not think we're very free because we can't protest the president in the general vicinity of him, while we might think an Iraqi isn't free because he or she is constantly under political oppression. The fact of the matter is, there are countries out there that think we aren't free. They think that we Americans don't have political freedom because we can't get our votes through to elect our new leader some of the time, or there are malfunctions in the voting system. They may think we're not free because of our crooked-ass presidents. They wouldn't be wrong. While we are a relatively free bunch of people, there are things we can't say and things we can't do. I mean, yes, I can't run into Costco and scream "I have a bomb!" when I don't have a bomb, but I should be able to speak out against the president without getting scrutinized by the FBI or secret service. I should be able to cast a vote for John Kerry and not have it counted as a vote toward Ralf Nader or George Bush. I should be able to forfeit saying the Pledge of Allegiance without getting in trouble. Some people will call it Unamerican, while I'll call it Veryamerican. Hey, why was America settled again? I think it was settled for like, you know, freedom of stuff?
Yeah.
Then you have free health care. Take Canada for instance, they have free health care, but they also have shitty free health care. I've told people this and they just refuse to believe that if we had free health care, it would be bureaucratically run, have huge lines and have to be on long waiting lists for everything. I mean, it's great that it's free, but it's very ineffective, and besides, you have to die sometime, right? I'm actually reading a book right now about death and dying and it deals quite a bit with the fact that because of good health care and medicine, we're having more old people. Not only does it mean we'll have trouble with driving on freeways now, but it means that there are many more chronic illnesses. Because of this, our health care network is getting fuller and fuller of sick people with diseases. So, who cares? Really, we all die sometime or another. It doesn't matter when. You just do. I'm not ready to die, personally. I have a lot yet to do before it's time for me to go, but if I learn that I have a few weeks left, I guess I simply have to accept it and go. What else is there to talk about?
Then there's the smack-in-the-face issue of peace. When 9/11 happened, people danced around like they really had to pee and their room mate was in the bathroom. People were moping and crying and whining and begging and then it all turned to anger. People had a reason to mourn. However, they never mourned over the right reasons. They screamed about how America got attacked and an entire city block of New York City was just destroyed and those dirty rag heads this and all Muslims are that. While most people won't admit it, they think of the landmarks gone and the fact that we were attacked over the fact that 3000 people died. 9/11 was not a tragedy. It was a bastardized event. 9/11 was a lesson that people never understood. They saw that it occurred, and said "Well, we have to do something about this," so we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. And with all the wars and justifications and whatnot to destroy the enemy and keep it from happening again, we failed to stop the behaviors that made it occur in the first place. The cocky attitudes our presidents have and the people of America have. The Peace by Superiority slogan that so many people tote around today. The sheer support of our leaders that don't really do anything anyway. They never make differences. My life is never made different by a president. Never.
So we have these millionaire pricks in office leading we, the American people, through this and that and getting us attacked in vain. Their decisions make more people hate us, then they don't allow us to understand why. They don't allow people to critically think. Well, I think it's about time for people to start thinking on their own. Start forming their own opinions. Revolt against our color coded terrorist-fighting system. Don't be patriotic. America isn't the only place in the world with people in it. It isn't the only place that has humans, humans with feelings, pain, and families. If you're going to love your country and the people in it, love the world and the people in it. Protect the world from bad people. When you hang American flags to support your country, it tells our president that you eat out of his hand.
When you show support for the entire world, you send the president a much, much different message.
User Reviews
Submitted by MickGinny (user info) at 2005-01-23 15:08:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Tom, you are an awesome kid. Your ability to articulate well on issues that most teenagers don't even hold a position on always amazes me. However, You are wasting your potential being a hippie. If you would go to the dark side and embrace capitalism, you would probably be a wealthy man by the time you are 25.
Submitted by Shizae (user info) at 2005-01-23 11:12:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
America does have a lot more freedom than many countries in the world, but there are also things that you can do in those countries that you can't do in America because nobody really gives a shit.
In South Africa, I could hang a giant swastika by my front door, and nobody'd probably do anything about it, most likely because they don't feel like getting past the 7ft brick wall, dogs, and guns.
I never have to say the pledge of allegiance, but I'm not a part of this country so nobody can do shit about it. Some told me to say it or else get in trouble, and I just laugh at them.
Submitted by Rawrg (user info) at 2005-01-23 03:44:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
+2 for some good points.
-1 for some bad ones.
This could have been a lot more structured and intelligent. It sounded too much like a pissed off rant to be truly convincing.
Submitted by FuckTheArmy (user info) at 2005-01-22 22:27:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Mostly, yes.
But of course, for those things to happen, you're going to have to help me overthrow the corporate system.
Me and what army? Have you never heard of working class?
Submitted by spedmonkey (user info) at 2005-01-22 20:50:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by NoahsArk (user info) at 2005-01-22 20:30:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Tom rules
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2005-01-22 20:11:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No, dude. Good solid essay, but no.
Submitted by Durae (user info) at 2005-01-22 19:59:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I agree with your overall beliefs about these issues, but there are a few nitpicky things that I'd like to bring up. As far as gay marriage goes, we've been raised to believe that a loving relationship is only fully validated through a formal union. So yes, gay couples have the right (for the most part) to be in a loving relationship, but it's a relationship that is not fully respected. That lack of validation makes their love seem less than a hetero relationship, and that's obviously discrimination. It's about having equal rights and a necessary part of equality is equal status in politics and society. If you look back at US History, interracial marriage was illegal at one point, and now we can all see how clearly that was a violation of basic rights. Eventually, we'll look back on this issue and shake our heads in the same way.
But yeah, in general, right on.
Submitted by MandaPanda (user info) at 2005-01-22 19:48:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yup.
Submitted by YELLOW-MAN (user info) at 2005-01-22 19:41:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Man I saw the link you put from CNN and I can't believe that shit. Some people are so fucking ignorant it's almost scary. Well at least none of you live in Texas, i'm under attack from Bush supporters almost everday but none of them have beaten me yet. Man the worst thing I heard was I was having this conversation over bush/kerry election back in october I believe and I said to this one guy I was going to vote for Kerry and he told me not to vote for Kerry and I asked why his response was "Kerry is a pussy, he backed out of Vietnam" The amazing thing is VIETNAM had nothing what so ever to do with this election. And yet it became an issue cause some idiot believed it has relevance. But my responce to the guy was yes I want a pussy running the country he got pissed off and ran away.
Submitted by YELLOW-MAN (user info) at 2005-01-22 19:36:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by AnotherStupidUsername (user info) at 2005-01-22 19:09:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Dude, this is a really good perspective from a person still in high school.(I believe you still are anyways). I liked your opinions toward gay marriage and health care ESPECIALLY. Why are people so afraid to die? I think you should read Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, simply because Ken Kasey, author of One flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest, shared a lot of your opinions dealing with the political side, and it really is the best perspective you can take.
"Even when you fight against them, your still playing their game"
Submitted by Tom (user info) at 2005-01-22 18:26:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/01/21/security.bin.laden.reut/
This pisses me off. They're trying to teach Americans about the reality behind 9/11 and al Queda and look at how we're reacting to it.
Submitted by Tom (user info) at 2005-01-22 17:14:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I actually could see how someone could easily disagree with what I just said. Part of myself wants to, in fact. This is sort of rolling over and giving in to the powerful conservatives in America, but it's not like it matters anyway, because it really doesn't.
But I would love to hear your opinions on what I said. Get back to me sometime.
Submitted by Spuds002 (user info) at 2005-01-22 17:10:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
word up g
Submitted by thorpe (user info) at 2005-01-22 17:10:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
A good attempt... I disagree with a fair bit but the general statement I like.
I have to go, consider this my committment to come back and review this properly.
Submitted by Tom (user info) at 2005-01-22 16:59:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I hate Star Trek.
Submitted by darko (user info) at 2005-01-22 16:52:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I too find myself fighting over touchy issues such as http://www.ubersite.com/m/57398
Submitted by TheRef (user info) at 2005-01-22 16:51:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
good post. good argument.
I would love to join your world patriotic movement but unfortunately my life is owned by the U.S.A.F. for the next 3 years.
I also think you have been watching too much star trek.
Submitted by Spooner (user info) at 2005-01-22 16:33:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
(16:28:48) Tom The Uber: http://www.ubersite.com/cgi-bin/message_get.cgi?message=110642918814635257
(16:28:53) Tom The Uber: LINKWHORE
(16:31:28) Spooner: Oh, shit, no, a serious post...
(16:31:40) Spooner: I'm allergic to serious things. =(
(16:31:50) Tom The Uber: never said you had to read it
(16:31:53) Tom The Uber: just click it